


Turn and Face the Strain: Timestamp

by NellieOleson



Series: turn and face the strain [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-29
Updated: 2012-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-02 16:59:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NellieOleson/pseuds/NellieOleson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was in response to a request for a fic set 12 years after Turn and Face the Strain</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turn and Face the Strain: Timestamp

“Dr. McKay?”

“Hmm?” Rodney looked over the tangle of optical cable he’d been rerouting. “What do you want?” He tried to project enough impatience to keep Alex uncomfortable. He couldn’t risk having a bunch of kids willing to invade his space. There were a lot of kids on Atlantis now and they’d irritated Rodney for years. Probably on purpose.

But not this one.

Rodney liked Alex. He was quiet and polite and always called Rodney ‘Dr. McKay’. Alex had practically grown up at Rodney’s feet, crawling around the science labs while Sam worked and Colonel O’Neill watched. It was almost like having a son of his own—only without all the work and responsibility.

“I was wonder—“

“Hold on.” Rodney had just noticed what the kid was wearing. “Where did you get that outfit?”

“Teyla made it for me.” He looked down at his chest and smoothed out the leather vest with his palms. “Why? Is there something wrong with it?”

“Not that I don’t normally have a great fondness for Teyla’s wardrobe but you look like one of the Village People.”

“From which village?”

“What—no. One of the Village People, not one of the people from the village. Never mind. Didn’t your parents teach you anything about Earth?”

Alex just shrugged. And that was another thing Rodney liked about him. He didn’t argue.

“Is your mother with you?” He looked over Alex’s shoulder, Alex was a tall kid and Rodney figured in two more years he’d have to look around him.  “How did you get here?”

“I brought the Jumper and mom’s at the cabin.”

Even though he’d stopped expecting Sam years ago, Rodney still found himself disappointed whenever Alex showed up alone. “You’re not old enough to drive.”

It was an old argument and Alex ignored it. He’d been flying jumpers since he was five. “The mainland is so boring.” He looked at Rodney’s nest of cable. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Rodney was in total agreement about the pace of life on the continent. It was like being dead, only worse because you weren’t actually dead. And technologically, they were barely out of the Stone Age. He had no idea how Sam could spend so much time there without losing her mind.  O’Neill he could understand, the man was like a Neanderthal, only with better hair.

Rodney figured Sam would get bored with the simple life and come back to Atlantis about five minutes after she left.

But she hadn’t returned and Rodney had filled the empty space in his lab with her son. “Of course I have stuff for you to do. This place doesn’t run itself.” That was mostly a lie but Rodney had a hard time admitting that he spent most of his time taking stuff apart, hoping to make some sense of it.

Sam would have understood. They’d spent countless hours tearing into Ancient technology before they’d defeated the Wraith and she’d abandoned him. She’d laughed when he tried to convince her to stay on Atlantis, telling him that with the Wraith gone, there was nothing in the galaxy that required their combined brainpower.

She was probably right about that.


End file.
